Tolerance to Uncertainty for Technical Excellence, a Mandatory Attribute for Digital Transformations

Tolerance to uncertainty and ambiguity is one of the well understood and accepted technical leadership attributes. Technical and technology leaders deal with future outcomes. They make the future. However, the future is unknown to us as humans, as outcomes are affected by a myriad of causes beyond the control of people. Therefore, uncertainty is a reality to deal with future events.

Uncertainty is a closely related term to risk management. Taking risks is one of the necessities and most fundamental characteristics of leaders for success. Risk and opportunity are like inseparable yin and yang. We can even simplify at the most fundamental level that no risk, no opportunity. Leaders know that opportunities are created by taking risks. They take calculated risks using their logic and intuition and mitigate them to be able to deal with uncertainty in a systematic way. One of the techniques they use is to learn from past failures and use these learnings in their risk-taking engagements.

Dealing with uncertainties and ambiguities for digital transformations creates new options and choices leading to innovation. Having more options to choose and linking those options in a creative, an intelligent, and an integrated way can create new transformational solutions. To this end, digital transformation that excellent leaders strive for require tolerance to uncertainty and ambiguity. Master digital transformers passionately embrace uncertainty.

In my recent publication "A Technical Excellence Framework for Innovative Digital Transformation Leadership", I attempted to provide valuable insights for digital transformational leadership using a pragmatic five-pillar framework. This empowering framework aims to help the reader understand the essential characteristics of technical and technology leaders in a structured way.